Killing the Prince (1)

As soon as I entered Celista’s dorm room serving as a temporary meeting place, an oddly awkward atmosphere permeated the entire space – evidenced by Celista startling when our eyes met, and Agnes for some reason quietly gazing into the distance.

As for Ethan, well, he’d been blushing whenever our eyes met these days anyway, so it didn’t feel particularly different from usual.

Wondering if I was the only one feeling this strangeness, I subtly turned to observe Gyeotmwa Josyegigot’s expression, and he too seemed to have noticed this odd atmosphere.

“What happened? Why is everyone acting so awkward…”

“…Rather than small talk, we have matters to discuss first. What were the results of verifying Lilith’s claims?”

“Ah, that? Everything was true. Prince Machart’s attack on Lilith, and how it was actually connected to demons.”

“I see…”

“…So it was true after all.”

Celista and Agnes, who still harbored some doubts, nodded as if finally convinced after hearing the Hero’s statement.

Though it might seem obvious since they’d confidently taken me out earlier claiming they’d verify the truth with a sacred sword before returning, the fact that they couldn’t discern the sacred sword story was a lie showed how utterly naive Celista and Agnes truly were.

Or perhaps lying before a sword imbued with divine power was such a blasphemous concept they couldn’t even consider it. Of course, the Hero showed no such guilt from the moment he called me out with that nonsense.

“To be honest, you never really gave the impression of someone who would lie from the start. But we verified anyway because there’s always that one-in-a-million chance. Miss Lilith doesn’t seem like someone who would lie either.”

“…If you’re trying to win Lilith’s favor with such obvious flattery, perhaps you should stop? Claiming you believed her all along after verifying with a sacred sword is utterly ridiculous. I never even considered that Lilith might be lying from the beginning.”

“Young Master Ethan?”

“…Ahem.”

I couldn’t be certain, but Ethan’s reaction seemed more guarded than before.

“So, what do we do now?”

“What do we do? There’s only one conclusion.”

“So… we’ll have to fight Prince Machart too…”

Celista, who normally wouldn’t hesitate against monsters or demons, made a distinctly uncomfortable expression when it came to opposing humans.

In the original storyline, most enemies were either monsters or demons anyway, with barely one or two human villains appearing at most.

Of course someone as gentle as Celista would react this way when told we needed to kill a prince.

That said, we’d need every available combatant for the Machart battle, so we couldn’t exactly exclude Celista. Best to put out the immediate fire first and have Gyeotmwa Josyegigot comfort her later.

“From now on, we’ll need to make concrete plans, so everyone present must absolutely not disclose today’s conversation to anyone outside.”

“Obviously.”

“…Yeah.”

“I know.”

“…Y-yes!”

“Even if you think someone might be able to help, this must not be revealed externally. Please remember that.”

Had our target been someone else, it might have been different, but what we were planning was undeniably a royal assassination plot.

If discovered, not only would everyone here face treason charges, but their families could also be endangered.

We’d need to ensure silence from royal family members like Seraphine and even current protagonist allies like Natalina Thomas.

After all, Natalina and Seraphine were the protagonist’s allies, not Lilith’s. No need to let them imagine the protagonist being manipulated by me and potentially throw a wrench in things.

Realistically, the only completely trustworthy and combat-capable people available right now were Agnes, Ethan, and the Hero.

“First, our top priority is luring out Prince Machart.”

“Right, we can’t exactly start swordfighting in the middle of the academy or royal palace.”

“Also, recalling when I was attacked by His Highness Machart, his demonic magic didn’t seem particularly suited for fighting multiple opponents.”

“…What kind of magic was it?”

“He approached me, suddenly grabbed my wrist, and took me to some inexplicable black space. Only a small circular platform around Prince Machart was dimly visible in the darkness, while shadows surrounding us blocked my escape and grabbed my ankles.”

Honestly, it was itching me to just explain all of Machart’s abilities outright along with countermeasures, rather than describing things like this.

But if I started blabbing about things I shouldn’t know beyond what I’d seen during one attack, it would naturally raise suspicions. It might even make people doubt my earlier claims about nearly being assassinated by Prince Machart.

So the ideal approach was to describe things in detail while letting the others deduce the magic’s nature and countermeasures themselves.

This way I could explain Machart’s magic without suspicion. With a magic genius like Agnes here, she’d interpret it properly anyway.

“Being dragged into a black space when he grabs your hand does sound like demon magic.”

“How can you tell just from that, Lady Blaze?”

“Demons use mysterious powers. Magic that operates on completely different principles from normal spells. Probably a pre-prepared magic stored in the body. I’ve heard demon bodies can store magic and activate it when conditions are met.”

“Th-the Snow Mountain Witch we fought in the north used a similar ability! I-I heard she was third in command among seven elite soldiers led by one of the Demon King’s Four Knights…”

…That’s not really a position warranting self-introductions, is it?

In human terms, that would be about equivalent to a fourth-tier civil servant. I nearly laughed imagining a demon of that rank introducing themselves. That Celista remembered this showed her remarkable qualities in many ways.

“Anyway, being different from normal magic with special powers means demon magic has activation conditions. Machart’s magic probably required grabbing the wrist to activate.”

“What’s certain is that it’s a difficult condition to meet in combat. Letting an opponent grab your wrist mid-battle is practically admitting defeat.”

“Right. But it’s undoubtedly dangerous for assassinations or one-on-one situations. A magic that can take someone to his personal space just by grabbing their wrist.”

“Normally it would be hard to use, but someone like him could probably activate it easily thanks to his status and looks.”

Once magic became the topic, Agnes enthusiastically lectured using her expertise while Gyeotmwa Josyegigot smoothly guided the conversation at appropriate moments.

Of course the Hero already knew Machart’s abilities and counters, so he was pretending to have just realized things while dropping hints for the others.

As established earlier, if he really was Guwon Sunae, he’d have long passed the Machart battle segment.

“The problem is how to prove Prince Machart is using demonic power. Even if we succeed in killing him, failing to prove his connection to demons would only leave us with treason charges.”

“…I’ve heard there are ways to detect demonic evidence from a demon’s corpse. Would that not work?”

“It seems he’s only using demonic power without fully becoming one yet. The time for demonic power to fully manifest in a body varies by person. So we have two options: wait until the demonic power fully manifests in him, or…”

The meeting about plans to kill Machart and prove he was a demon continued at length. Over three hours into the lengthy discussion, Ethan absentmindedly looked at me and muttered quietly.

“Thinking back… perhaps those missing noble ladies recently might be related to him too.”

“…That might be. After dealing with Prince Machart, we might be able to find out what happened to them.”

“……”

“…Young Master Ethan?”

While discussing the missing noble ladies, Ethan suddenly looked at me with sorrowful eyes. Then, as if overwhelmed by emotion, he tightly grasped my hands and quietly sobbed.

“I’m really glad you’re safe, Lilith.”

“Y-yes…”

“I’ll tear that bastard Machart limb from limb. And I’ll expose all evidence of his connection to demons to ruin his reputation.”

“C-could you please let go of my hands…? E-everyone is watching…”

Especially that bastard Gyeotmwa Josyegigot watching us.

Seeing Ethan sincerely worried for me, clutching my hands with all his might while shedding tears, that guy smirked at us as if watching some fascinating spectacle.

…If only he weren’t the Hero, I’d have punched him square in the jaw.